Rain, Tents, Breeze, BBQ and Biking at Pargi Hills

A weekend well spent at Pargi Hills. Thanks to TBA and each rider who joined for such a wonderful event. I started the journey at 4:30 am from my home and on reaching TBA got first flat. To fix the flat, I lifted my bicycle and hurt my leg as paddle smashed. Finally flat was fixed, and cars were fully loaded with the stuff we needed for the camping at the night. We left and were joined by few more riders on the way.

Even after the warning of cyclone and heavy rainfall, we didn't cancel our plan and just moved on. We were welcomed by drizzle followed by heavy rainfall soon after covering 40 k.m. The greenery on the way made it even more beautiful place to ride bicycle. Thanks to Krish for stopping after every few k.m. to take pictures of all of us riding on hills, climbs in the rain. We stopped for breakfast along with hot coffee in rain. After sometime, we continued on the route with high speed on bicycle. By the time we were mid-way, all our clothes, shoes were wet and helmet was dripping water but the zeal to reach to camping place made me ride faster. On reaching Vikarabad, we planned to go to a lake for short ride of around 30 km and soaking feet in the lake water was truly refreshing. We ate puffs, drank badam milk for energy and finally had to climb 2 huge hills on way back to Vikarabad.

We stopped at fields full of thorns but a must go place for good photographs and scenic beauty. After struggling for over 110 k.m. finally we reached to Pargi Hills and after having lunch, we headed towards camping area. Before reaching Pargi, I just drove my bike on under construction road and fell down. Experienced my first fall from bicycle. Rain didn't stop and everyone lost hope that we will be able to Camp/BBQ. Some of riders slept, some still figuring our how to pitch the tents, searched for place to put shed for cooking, got water from reservoir, fighting against the cold climate to light up damped charcoal, searching for stones and sticks to hold tents. We were accompanied with "B" (German Shepherd) who guarded us for the night. Finally tents were pitched and we succeeded in burning some charcoal and enjoyed the awesome BBQ of chicken :)

After eating like hell, we started drying our clothes on the flames of charcoal and finally went for sleep. The tents were really warm and water proof which made all of us happy. Had an lifetime experinece of sleeping in tents with rain drops sounds because of heavy rainfall. I woke up in morning and started packing all the stuff. The weather was too good in the morning and we packed tents, bags and everything and soon started back towards home. Few left in car, few left to reach early but I and Sumit rided slow enjoying the food on the way. Cross winds and head winds were making it difficult to ride and finally we stopped for lunch after which I was fully recharged and finally after struggling for over 95 k.m. I reached home with my bike in poor condition and unforgettable memories of the ride and riders.

In two days, I rode for 225 k.m. and now recovering from the pain in legs and shoulders (mistake of carrying a heavy bag on my back for 100 k.m.). Now I hope that I will be able to prepare myself for brevet as well. Just making my mind :D

1000 K.M. completed :D

It sounds really exciting when you hear someone saying "I completed 1000 k.m. on bicycle" and today is my turn. My 106th ride till now makes me cross my first milestone of 1000 k.m. which I use to just dream of earlier.

I enjoyed driving for total of 57 hours with gaining elevation of 5335 m in just 2 months over lot of slow lazy sunday morning rides, long and very long rides, night rides, cycle to work, etc. Cycling has become addiction for me and each ride encourages me to ride more km and as fast as I can, pushing my limits to remain fit :D

Got new friends while cycling which makes my weekends which otherwise I use to spend sleeping and doing nothing. Buying bike accessories each month makes you feel happy that your effort of cycling is not going waste.

All these numbers encouraged me for another 2 day long ride to Pargi Hills this weekend along with camping. (Really excited !!!!)

Country side ride to Shankarpalli

Shankarpalli is one of the developing towns in AP. A place full of green trees and nice climate. On the occasion of Diwali, I decided to ride with Hyderabad Bicycling Club this time to my second long ride to Shankarpalli which is ~ 40 k.m. away from my home. So we would be covering ~ 80 k.m. in total. Lot of riders who RSVP'ed didn't came for the ride. Finally 5 riders started early morning from Gachibowli for this ride. When I was checking the route, I thought that it will only contain inclines of Microsoft, Movie Towers which I have done lot of time now and will be able to do it but who knew the whole route contained ups and downs making the ride bit tougher but the roads were awesome. Although because of rains there were bad patches on the road but overall a nice riding experience.

On the way, the roads seems to never end which makes riding difficult as you start feeling that distance is longer. A road full of trees on both sides, less traffic, cool weather which slowly became hot on the way back. After reaching Shankarpalli, we stopped at a place to eat Hot Idly Sambar, and we started back. Riding on return was much more difficult as we have lot most of the energy, the roads had more inclines and it was a tiring journey. I took rest after ~ 20 k.m. ride while return and finished off whatever I took for ride snacks.

Finally on climbing the movie towers hills which took long time as I was returning with no energy left, this view was simply awesome and soothing to eyes. And soon after going downhill I reached ORR and felt that my home is pretty close now.

And here comes the last patch of my ride and the most difficult one (Microsoft Hill) which seemed like a monster at that time with ~ 1.7 k.m. inclined surface and almost no energy left by that time. I have to take couple of stops to reach at the top and their is no workaround for this hill to reach my home. After this big climb, I stopped at DLF to have "Banana Milk Shake" which was truly refreshing and started again to reach home. I finished my ride in 3 hours and 45 min. The ride was so tiring that I was not even able to sleep the whole day :D